Eurozone’s good and bad

The good news is, consumer spending for the region increased for the month while trade also contributed to a slower economic contraction.

Eurostat said consumer spending rose 0.2% from the first quarter, having declined by 0.5% during both the first quarter of this year and the fourth quarter of last.

Net trade also helped reduce the pace of contraction, although that was due to falling imports rather than rising exports. Indeed, declining exports knocked 0.4% from GDP, while the drop in imports added 1.1%.

The jobless rate in the euro zone rose to 9.5 percent in July, the highest reading since May 1999, from 9.4 percent in June, Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, said Tuesday in Luxembourg.

Eurostat estimated that nearly 22 million men and women in the E.U. were out of work, putting the unemployment rate for the bloc’s 27 countries at 9 percent, up from 8.9 percent in June. Spain, where a housing boom has collapsed, led all E.U. countries with an 18.5 percent rate.